Money Players

NCAA-NBA partnership eyes a name

In April 2008, the NCAA and the NBA announced a partnership to "to add new structure to youth basketball." It has been a long process, but they finally have a name -- iHoops -- and a web site that will officially launch in the Fall (shouldn't it be iHoops dot net??). When the partnership was first announced, John Feinstein yawned and made a great Gong Show analogy.

Right now, i am giving iHoops the benefit of the doubt. Yes, I am critical of NCAA and its members for the role its rules, its coaches, and its athletic representatives play in contributing to the mess of youth basketball. And by mess, I am not only referring to recruiting problems/scandals, but also to player development.

At the Reebok Eurocamp (much more on that later), an NBA scout and former longtime college basketball coach made this insightful point to me:

"The NCAA needs to look at itself in the mirror -- and change its behavior before it can change behavior of others. Look at how much money coaches make today versus five, 10 years ago. The NCAA and its members can talk all they want about educational values, but Calipari's salary alone sends a powerful message of what college basketball is really all about. And it's not just Cal...there are more than a handful of college coaches now making more than NBA coaches."

Obviously, it's not just how much college coaches are paid, but also the economic reality and institutional values (or lack thereof) that create this compensation structure.

The Basketball Underground

A couple days ago, the Los Angeles Times did a lengthy investigative piece basketball prodigy Renardo Sidney. It was yet another story on the ills of big-time basketball. Yawn. I don't want to comment specifically on the allegations yet. I will say this: The Sidneys are a close, loving family. Are they perfect? Perhaps not, but it's not fair to judge them harshly without knowing all the facts. Let's also not forget, the Sidneys did not create the well-established underground marketplace for basketball players. Maybe this is solid, investigative reporting. On the other hand, how credible is a piece that incorrectly says that Renardo, Sr. is Renardo's stepson, when he is, in fact, Jr's biological father? The Times did correct the mistake after the fact.

As Shaq famously said, "Biological don't matter." However, it does feed into some unfortunate stereotypes about race and parenting. (Also, it is worth nothing that common sense could have answered the question: Ask yourself, how many stepsons are named after their stepfathers?)

Beyond insinuations that UCLA and USC backed off because they were uncomfortable with some things, people do have axes to grind in this business and butts to cover. I definitely would like to believe UCLA and everyone associated with this fine institution is above reproach, but I am also not delusional. (Disclaimer: My in laws graduated from UCLA and my wife graduated from UCLA law school.)

I don't blame the Times and Lance Pugmire for wanting to try to make sense of this upside-down, bizzaro world. But, he and a lot of others fail or do not want to recognize that the business of "amateur" basketball is by driven market demand, legitimate or otherwise.

Check out my latest Basketball Times article, which is on the basketball underground. In the article, I include one of my favorite all-time quotes on recruiting. Former UCLA assistant coach Jack Hirsch, whose family reportedly made a fortune in pornography. Comparing porn to college basketball, Hirsh told Sports Illustrated in 1984, “(The porno business) is infinitely cleaner than recruiting.”

The Basketball Underground [requires PDF]

Another must-read: Pat Forde's article about the "The Five People You Meet in Recruiting Hell." I greatly appreciate anytime a writer can work in the "biggest whore" Jerry Tarkanian ever met AND Bill Saum in the same article.

--Marc Isenberg

The never-ending Jeremy Tyler debate

NY Times writer Pete Thamel puts together a great sampling of opinion on Tyler's decision.

In Jeremy's own words

“If I go to college and fill up an arena with 30,000 people, I don’t get a penny. In my profession with what I’m doing in my life, it doesn’t need a full college degree. I’m definitely going to take classes over there. I want to be there, have fun and learn stuff that I don’t know. I’m going to study the culture, study the language and how their lifestyle is different than mine. I don’t know another language. I want to learn something else.”

Great point. Education does not have to take place in the classroom.

Sports Illustrated's George Dohrmann offers a couple interesting revelations about Tyler and his recruitment by both Louisville and by sports agents. The first one is hardly shocking: A sports agency offered cash to the Tyler family to tide them over until he declared for the NBA draft. The next one is a bit more salacious. Drumroll please...

"Around the same time [agents were offering money], coaches at Louisville and other schools began reviewing Jeremy's transcripts. They looked for ways to get him into college next fall, a full year ahead of schedule for a student in the class of 2010. "They went through his grades and wanted to help set up a program with online courses and other things," James Tyler said. "These schools have their ways of getting things done. They were saying, 'Let's see how we can get him a year early.'" (Louisville declined to comment, citing NCAA recruiting rules.)

For those who believe that agents and runners are intruding in the lives of young basketball players for their own benefit, stand in line. In my world, online courses equals GED! Bomani Jones has a great interview with my guy Dan Wetzel, who broke the Tyler story for Yahoo! Sports. The entire interview is worth listening to, but here are a few highlights from Dan...

He's getting shredded all over the country for this decision. If he just went to one of these high schools that doesn't even exist, They have 16 kids in the high school and 12 play basketball. 

There's no actual books. That would be fine. Oh, he's a high school kid. But those things have nothing to do with high school. They are basically a glorified AAU team with a home-school curriculum. Why bother? Why is that charade socially acceptable, but going to Europe with your dad isn't?

This is how you stay eligible for a one and done. You take four classes in the Fall. You get 2 Ds and 2 Fs. Then you don't show for a single class in the Spring. And you playing in the Final Four. That's all it takes.

[The Tylers] do think it's the right thing for them. Having talked to them and kinda liking them, the only thing I hope is people allow them to make their own decision and not just sit there and say, Oh this kid must do this and just stereotype him and call him a fool for trying.

It's a complete joke. They know it's a joke. They are told it's a joke by the coaches recruiting them. The academics mean very little in this case. These people do think it's the right thing for them. Having talked to them and kinda liking them, the only thing I hope is people allow them to make their own decision and not just sit there and say, Oh this kid must do this and just stereotype him and call him a fool for trying.

I posted a response on the DoubleAZone, the NCAA's "official blog. This elicited the following from Greg Johnson...

There's nothing wrong with enjoying your high school or college years and becoming a more rounded person. Someone needs to explain to me why finishing high school and going to college, even for a year in some cases, is the worst thing that can happen to a person.

Seems like it is only NCAA officials who spin the tale that one year in college is better than none. Maybe if these players actually stayed the entire academic year, I would grant that point, but as soon as the season ends most (probably all) "one and done" players drop out to prepare for the draft. Let's not live in a fantasy world. One and done is a farce for both athlete and institution.

To me it's crazy to make such a big deal for five to maybe 10 players a year. For most players, college is absolutely the best model.

If this is all about allowing kids to be kids, how come there's not similar outrage when football coaches encourage talented players "go college early" in order to participate in spring practice?

--Marc Isenberg

Update: Henry Abbott over at TrueHoop writes: "To me the best part of all is having more than one system, which is new. There was not much pressure on the NCAA to prepare athletes better than anybody else (whether for basketball or life after basketball). They got all the athletes!" Another good point.

UConn-ed

Another day, another Yahoo! Sports investigative report into the sleazy business of college recruiting. Journalists Dan Wetzel, a friend, and Adrian Wojnarowski are among the best in the business of following and documenting many of the alleged transgressions that take place in this business.

As I did with Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo, I think it's important to defend the players, who really have no idea about the backroom dealing that often takes place among AAU coaches, family members, agents, runners and college coaches.

The NCAA, college programs and coaches can shift the blame to the agents, but ultimately it takes two take to tango. What's so damning in this investigation is the volume of calls between the agent and the UConn coaching staff. According to Yahoo!, there were "1,565 phone and text communications with Nochimson, including 16 from head coach Jim Calhoun." Wow. Can you imagine what Kelvin Sampson is thinking today?

The problem of funneling players among summer program, college basketball and then back to the agents is nothing new. It is heightened with the NBA age restriction and the embracing of one-(or even two)-and-done. This is what happens when the NCAA and its members attempt to maintain an outdated facade of amateurism, while EVERYTHING about basketball AT ALL LEVELS has been commercialized...whether we want to admit it or not. The current allegation involves Josh Nochimson, the agent who allegedly ripped off former UCONN player and current NBA star Richard "Rip" Hamilton of more than $1 million. There's no explicit fiduciary duty for college coaches to protect their players from unsavory characters, but I would like to believe that college coaches are the players' "in loco parentis." After all, that's what coach recruiters promise to mothers and fathers every day. Nochimson was a former UCONN student basketball manager, so there's added intrigue: His role appears to be essentially babysitting on behalf of UCONN and making sure Miles was delivered to his alma mater. In return, Nochimson would be well positioned when Miles went pro. 

There should be a some responsibility to protect current UCONN players from a guy who stole big money from a former player. Nice notion, of course, but the insatiable appetite coaches coaches have for elite players is often too great to resist. According to the Yahoo report:

“[Nochimson] admitted to stealing,” Hamilton said. “He cried … I always remember my agent saying, ‘Rip, don’t put your hands on him because he’ll be able to sue you. [Nochimson] was doing everything off of me. He looks like a high roller. It’s hard for a kid because you may not have anything and you see this guy.”

Did the experience of Rip Hamilton cause UCONN hoops to end its association with Nochimson? Not in this upside down world. Here's the conclusion to the Yahoo! story:

Hamilton’s discovery didn’t stop UConn’s contact with Nochimson. The phone calls and text messages went on well past Miles’ expulsion. Even now, Moore is unwilling to disavow his old student-manager saying that they still haven’t discussed the charges that he stole from Hamilton. “I consider him a friend and a very loyal, trusting person,” Moore said.

As an aside, my high school plays a periphery role. From the Yahoo! story: "Nate Pomeday remembered Nochimson arriving unannounced with Miles at his gymnasium in Lake Forest, Ill. Nochimson had discussed using Pomeday’s school at the time, Lake Forest Academy, as a place to enroll other basketball players. Pomeday said he never worked out Miles." Nice that an agent wants to turn LFA into a basketball factory.

The biggest whore Jerry Tarkanian ever met

[Cartoon by Sebastian Conley, exclusively for Money Players. All rights reserved.]

Another day, another allegation that sports agents, AAU coaches and the devil are all the same. Pat Barrett, a longtime coach on the summer basketball circuit, is, again, involved. Shocking. Yahoo! Sports alleges that Barrett accepted a $250,000 donation from Ceruzzi Sports in return for access to his best NBA prospect, Kevin Love.

The NCAA is apparently concerned about the role AAU coaches play in the recruiting and agent game:

“College coaches were now standing side by side with agents at AAU tournaments and high school games. ‘In the parking lots and at the concessions stands and in the hotel rooms’ is where the NCAA’s Newman Baker said agents linger.”

Agents, AAU coaches and college coaches standing side by side. One big happy, dysfunctional basketball cesspool. The NCAA rulebook prohibits agents from doing anything like paying money to players or to their surrogates. But, amazingly, it allows colleges coaches to pay for direct access to top players. Thankfully, it prohibits college coaches from raising money on behalf of AAU programs, although that did not stop one former coach from requesting IN WRITING that his boosters donate to a program to help with his program's recruitment. Remember, AAU coaches have value to not just sports agents, but also to college coaches who also covet their top players. AAU programs are funding their tax-exempt programs with donations from agents, financial advisers and, I'm guessing, wealthy boosters. "Sleazy" agents donate all this money for a lousy 4% of the bump on an NBA rookie contract plus 20% of endorsement deals, which in this economy is 20% of nada. If you do a back-of-the-napkin calculation, it is easy to see that a great player is far more valuable to a college coach than any sleazy or even reputable agent. Just ask noted sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, who wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the flawed salary structure for college coaches:

[College coaches] are making almost as much as NBA coaches, even though their teams' revenues generally are below one-tenth those in [the NBA]. The trick, of course, is that the players aren't allowed to be paid, so the coaches, in essence, get the value produced by their recruits. It doesn't hurt that college sports benefit from state subsidies and federal tax exemptions, and that they have no stockholders looking for quarterly profits.

Unfortunately, my friend Jason Williams, who worked for Ceruzzi Sports and former NBPA director Charles Grantham, was allegedly the point person recruiting Kevin. In the Yahoo! article, Kevin cuts right to the (motorcycle) chase: “If I was going with an agent, why would I ever go with a guy who, no offense, but he crashed a motorcycle into a tree? I’m not going to go with a guy that’s reckless.” Pat Barrett thrives in his world not just because some agents help fund his program, but also because college coaches kiss up to him. And provide free tickets. And give him access. And, wink, wink, encourage wealthy boosters to also contribute. My early analysis: Kevin and his family were used. Big time. Pat Barrett is a con artist, not on the scale of Bernie Madoff, but a bad dude, nonetheless. He conned Ceruzzi Sports by making them believe he “controlled” Kevin Love and that he could steer Love to chose Ceruzzi as his agents. And Barrett defrauded the Loves by going behind their back and capitalizing on an asset he did not own. My favorite judge of basketball character (or lack of) is Jerry Tarkanian. When he was coach at UNLV, Tark described Pat Barrett as "the biggest whore I ever met." I am sure Tark encountered lots of whores along the way, so this is quite a statement. (BTW—I am convinced Jerry Tarkanian is one of the most honest college basketball coaches of all time…honest about the dishonesty associated with basketball.) So much for Tark's spot-on character assassination. Twenty years later, a job recommendation by Pat Barrett is still apparently golden:

"If you are going to be the coach at USC, you better have a relationship with the coach of the Southern California All-Stars, Pat Barrett, who recommended [Rudy Hackett]. I hired him and I'm very glad we did.

Only in America. Only in the bizarro world of basketball, where the wolves don’t even have to bother to dress as sheep. --Marc Isenberg

The sheepy business of basketball

The Tampa Tribune writes another one of those "cynical" articles about the alleged sleazy business of big-time basketball. There's a lot of finger pointing, as usual, and rationalizing.

In my many years examining the issues facing or plaguing basketball (depending on how your moral compass is calibrated), I've met all the good and bad actors in this business. As I try to point out, things are not always what they seem. Unfortunately, it's increasingly difficult to tell the wolves in sheep's clothing from the sheeps who come dressed as they are. Since we're using analogies to explain this world, there is no better truth-teller in all of college sports than Saint Joseph's basketball coach Phil Martelli:

"I had an opening on my staff last year and three different guys called me about it. They all said the same thing: 'If you hire me, I can deliver this guy high school player to your program.' Frankly, it made my skin crawl. Not to make an analogy that's a huge over-exaggeration, but hasn't slavery ended?"

Actually, slavery has been outlawed, but the enterprise of "owning" people still, unfortunately, occurs. Another good guy, Virginia Tech basketball coach Seth Greenberg, understands recruiting:

"The player is the center of the universe. You've got to draw a circle around that player and then touch everyone in that circle. If you don't touch the right person, you're going to be eliminated."

College sports is big business. That's not necessarily bad, especially if everyone could just be honest about this commercial enterprise, rather dressing it up as a sheep. Baaaahhh.

Related Money Players/Animal Planet post: It's the horse, not the jockey

--Marc Isenberg

Money Players Links

Money Players is all about being the best resource for the business of being a professional athlete. Here are some links from around the web that we think are must reads for any current or aspiring professional athlete and their families.

• Sports agent C. Lamont Smith talks to Sports Agent Blog’s Darren Heitner about his new venture, jocklife.com. According to Smith, “Jocklife.com is for athletes of all levels: high school, college, and professional. The whole gist of the Jocklife platform is to bring some balance and fairness to the coverage of athletes…give athletes the opportunity to define themselves. Today, athletes are really defined by the coverage they get and the stories written about them. Very few times do they have the opportunity to define themselves in an extended fashion.”
  
  
• Slam Magazine’s Lang Whitaker interviews NBA agents Lon Babby and Jim Tanner. Tanner and Babby are known in NBA circles for their fee structure (hourly rather than percentage based) that saves their clients a lot of money.  They also are known as the agents that negotiated Josh Childress’ ground breaking deal with Greek professional team Olimpiacos.
  
  
• A nice piece by SI’s Kevin Armstrong on top high school basketball player Jordan Hamilton and his tight knit family. Hamilton’s mother mentions his intentions to sign a National Letter of Intent in the near future. Hopefully, she understands both the positives and the negatives of such a move.
  
  
• According to reports, Stephon Marbury has just spent $45 million to purchase a new private jet. Stephon has made a lot of money throughout his career (approximately $150 million), but this could turn out to be a purchase Steph will regret. Stephon probably has plans to lease the plane out when he is not utilizing it, but Scottie Pippen tried to do the same thing, and that didn’t end well for him. Stephon might want to put down the Bankruptcy Tonic and pick up a copy of Money Players.
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal with a report on how budget cuts in college athletic departments could hurt the U.S. in future Olympics.
  
  
• Another article on Baylor hiring the former AAU coach of top recruit John Wall. We first told you about this story in a previous set of Money Players Links.

-Nate Jones

For more in-depth information on the business of being a professional athlete, purchase Money Players: A Guide to Success in Sports, Business & Life for Current and Future Pro Athletes, written by our own Marc Isenberg.

Money Players Links

Money Players is all about being the best resource for the business of being a professional athlete. Here are some links from around the web that we think are must reads for any current or aspiring professional athlete and their families.

• Sean Deveney reports on the National Basketball Players Association's high-growth entrepreneurship program. This summer the program offered NBA players four days of intense business classes and workshops at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, one of the nation's best business schools. This is something that any NBA Player with an interest in investing in or starting a business should get involved in. The gold in the article comes from, program director, Professor Steve Rogers: "Every single athlete is approached with get-rich ideas all the time," Rogers said. "But they don't have the tools to evaluate those ideas. Their focus is basketball. They should be saying no to these deals almost every time. At big venture capital firms, they will get 3,000 business plans per year, and they'll say yes to, maybe, eight of them. Of those eight, not all are going to work out. Sometimes a solid, legitimate business idea just doesn't work. What makes things harder for high-profile people like athletes is that a lot of the people who are offering them these deals are not legitimate. That's where this program is aimed to help."
  
  
• Speaking of athlete’s not being prepared to make sound business investments, Valley Wag composed a list of the worst athlete-backed internet startups of all time.
  
  
• Sam Smith gives us thoughts on the exodus of NBA players to Europe this summer. The comment section of the post is really pretty interesting.
  
  
• The Economist has a great special report on the globalization of sports.
  
  
• A lesson to be learned: Chose your agents and your business managers wisely. These are just accusations at this point, but $500K is a lot of money to lose.
  
  
• An outstanding breakdown by CBS Sportsline’s Gary Parrish on the quid pro quo aspect of college basketball recruiting. I would also recommend reading Parrish’s article on the Elite Camps.
  
  
• Sticking with the theme of Parrish’s article, Baylor hires the AAU coach of top recruit, John Wall, as their player development head.
  
  
• Tom Ziller of Fanhouse looks at the production of the 2004 NBA draft class last season versus the contract extensions they received. Just a hint: The order of salaries isn’t in step with who produces the most.
  
  
• Forbes has a cover story on the most powerful coach in sports: "[Saban] was given total control of the football program: recruiting, coaching, business administration and public relations. There are coaches at other universities who have similar salaries, like Charlie Weis at Notre Dame and Pete Carroll at the University of Southern California. But no coach, including those in the professional leagues, can match Saban's combination of money, control and influence. Saban, now entering his second year as the coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, is the most powerful coach in sports.”
  

--Nate Jones

For more in-depth information on the business of being a professional athlete, purchase Money Players: A Guide to Success in Sports, Business & Life for Current and Future Pro Athletes, written by our own Marc Isenberg.

Show me the money trail

Los Angeles Times writer Ben Bolch writes on summer basketball, connecting the dots for the top players from high school to college and to the pros.

Similar articles have been written before, so there's not much new ground covered here. There's the usual questionable characters mentioned (especially Rodney Guillory), the vague job description of runners and the now-regular staple of these articles: an anonymous sports agent pointing out the hypocrisy and corruption of this dirty business.

I like what John Wall, a top high school player, has to say:

"If you let one person into your circle, they can mess everything up. They would tell me I had a good game, I'm a good player and they want to start helping me out basketball-wise," Wall said. "I was like, 'Nah. If you weren't there before I had anything, there's no point in you coming around now.' "

Bolch writes:

"Some observers compare a coach who purports to guard a player's best interest with the fox guarding the henhouse."

And then there's Pat Barrett, who runs Southern California All-Stars. Bolch states that Barrett is a "controversial figure in local basketball circles, is quick to acknowledge that he's 'not affiliated with any rules. . . . I have no kids in school, I'm not a booster, I'm not alumni.' "

Had no idea that rules (or laws for that matter) are something we are or aren't affiliated with.

There is also an accompanying article on agents and intermediaries that mostly quotes an anonymous "prominent sports agent." I love this agent's reason for not identifying himself: He is apparently concerned "that his comments might be construed as an admission he had engaged in wrongdoing." Personally, I would prefer these agents who purport to follow the rules stand up and identify themselves. "Hey, look at me, I follow the rules, I don't jeopardize an athlete's eligibility."

The supposedly prominent sports agent on just how sleazy the sports agent biz is:

"Overwhelmingly, 95% of the time, there's a third party involved. If agents could get players in a fair, representative way without paying money they would, because everyone is a bottom-line businessman. But they can't."

"Most of the time the runner tells a kid, 'I'm just taking care of business so that we can do what we need to do.' "

This is probably my biggest problem with the entire sports agent industry: Agents and runners operating without disclosing the nature of this relationship with the targeted player.

The anonymous agent also thinks the NBA Players' Assn's oversight of agents is "loosey-goosey" and that "the union's investigation into whether Bill Duffy Associates Sports Management engaged in wrongdoing during its recruitment of Mayo should serve as the litmus test for whether the league is willing to get tough."

Litmus test? So if BDA is not found guilty, the NBPA is not doing its job. There were bad actors in the Mayo case, no doubt, but that doesn't mean it's fair to automatically reach these conclusions. I'm guessing this is the real reason this agent wouldn't come forward: He wanted to slam Duffy on the record. As I've said several times on Money Players, if it is proven that BDA did anything wrong, they should pay a heavy penalty. But we haven't seen that evidence yet. Only Louis Johnson showing ESPN Guillory's receipts.

--Marc Isenberg

It's the horse, not the jockey

ESPN's Andy Katz reports that K-State gave assistant basketball coach Dalonte Hill a $420,000 a year deal. Hill was one of Michael Beasley's AAU coaches for DC Assault and is responsible for bringing Beasley to K-State..

Apparently this deal makes Hill the highest-paid paid assistant coach in all of college basketball. ESPN's Andy Katz described Hill's deal as "stunning" and "whopping" and points out that the basketball community is "beffuddled." Cue the ole Casablanca standby, including the far more instructive part where Captain Renault proves that commerce (shocking) prevails over moral outrage:

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much.

Let's look at Hill's deal rationally. K-State's athletic director Bob Krause seems to have an excellent grasp of the economics of college basketball:

"A youngster like Michael Beasley is a once-in-a-lifetime [player]. We have youngsters in the queue, and Dalonte and the entire staff is a big part of that. We're looking at a long-term investment. You can throw money at stuff but that's not the point. You're making an investment to keep the momentum going."

Success in college sports is pretty simple. Bring in the best available players and give them good coaching. In the era of "one and done" the premium is on recruiting. No doubt "x and o's" coaching matters, but it's more important to devote resources to recruiting activities. If athletic departments are investing in private jets to make it easier for head coaches to recruit, why not invest in assistant coaches who have deep relationships with top recruits? In the final analysis paying an assistant coach $420k reflects the marketplace for those at the top of the player procurement game.

Curious thought: What's the difference between an AAU coach, a runner, a college recruiter, and an agent? The skills seem very interchangeable and, in fact, I know several who have worked their way up the career ladder -- or down, depending on how you view this whole business.

--Marc Isenberg